


if it's cold in the water (am i better for it?)

by k_152



Series: record scratch [2]
Category: Persona 5
Genre: Angst, Gen, Oops, dont have to read the last one to understand, endgame spoilers, very minor/vague descriptions of fatal gun injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-16
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-29 13:17:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 672
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17808659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_152/pseuds/k_152
Summary: Akira messed up this time, he knows it. It’s the fifth time he’s lived through his year in Tokyo and he thought that maybe this time it would be different.It isn’t.





	if it's cold in the water (am i better for it?)

**Author's Note:**

> title from the song 'Sinking Ship" by Wild Child
> 
> unbeta-ed/unedited please lmk of any typos or errors
> 
> some dialogue taken from The Scene in the game. u know the one
> 
> enjoy! this one's sad

Akira messed up this time, he knows it. It’s the fifth time he’s lived through his year in Tokyo and he thought that maybe this time it would be different.

It isn’t.

Well, he supposes, it is. But not in the way he wanted it to be.

Akira hears Akechi before he can see him. The heavy armored door drags open, and the guard’s face becomes a mess of gore and blood and things Akira never wanted to see in real life. 

He drops to the ground and reveals Akechi, smoking gun and twisted, manic grin equipped, like he hadn’t just killed a man, like he didn’t plan on doing the same thing to Akira in a second. 

“Have you finally pieced it all together?” Akechi fixes his glove, sweeps aside a piece of hair. He walks towards Akira, methodically raising the gun to Akira’s forehead. 

Akira’s eyes widen -- it’s easier to know its happening to a cognitive version of yourself. It’s easier to not have a gun to your head. It’s easier to not see someone you care about so broken. 

The metal touches his head --it’s strange, he’d always imagined it cold. A foreign metal object, freezing to the touch -- but it’s not. It’s hot, filled with the explosions of bullets and blood and no glory and falsified pride. 

“Shido,” Akira rasps. It’s about all he can get out. His head is still fuzzy, his eyes barely open. He feels like maybe dying like this isn’t as bad as dying sober and totally aware of everything. 

Akechi pauses, his grin faltering. “What about him?” he spits the last word, the curse in a holy man’s mouth, the prayer in a doomed man’s mind. 

“He’s why I’m here,” Akira pauses, faintly recognizing the multiple questions that answers. “In Tokyo,” he adds, to clarify that which will not be understood anyway. 

The gun presses a little deeper. “Why should I care?”  
The heat clears his mind more than he’d expected. Maybe it was the adrenaline. Akira wanted to go back to being drowsy and barely aware of the fact that he was about to become some faceless headline. 

“I know he’s your father. I know he’s on your hit list. I know I am too. I’m sorry,” Akira grimaces slightly. His arm hurts. His leg hurts. So does his chest. Akira hurts so much. He hates this part.

The grin grows frantic, “Is this where you beg?” Akechi’s hips hit the table and Akira wants to shrink back -- Arsene in the back of his mind is the only thing keeping him still. Akechi is close, too close. 

“No. No, it’s not. I’m just… sorry, Goro. I really am.”

Akechi scoffs, loud as a bullet in the muted silence of the room. “Your apologies mean nothing, Kurusu. This is where your ‘justice’ ends.” 

His smile grows wider still. “Case closed.”

\--

The news anchor clears her throat and puts on the ever-ready business smile. “Breaking news, in theme of the Phantom Thieves’ leader who was taken into custody earlier this night.”

She frowns as she reads the next part of the teleprompter, “The police have reported that the suspect was able to apprehend the guard of his holding cell, using the guard’s gun to kill both the guard and then himself.” 

She pauses for a second, allowing the message to sink in. “The suspect has been identified as sixteen-year-old Kurusu Akira, a student at the infamous Shujin Academy here in Tokyo. Police have not identified any of the other Phantom Thieves as of now but will continue to work on identifying the criminals until they can be detained as well. For further updates, check our twitter @tkynews5.”

The camera stops rolling and the woman has to leave the room for just a few minutes. When one of her colleagues go to find her, they’ll find her mascara running and hair mussed, crying over the child who had been left to fend for himself and ended up dying for succeeding in the best way possible.

**Author's Note:**

> so uhhhhhhh hi
> 
> this was supposed to be the ending to part 1 in this series and then it went violently Not Fluff. literally. so now these drabbles are gonna be a series and not one (1) Long one shot. 
> 
> (also that lady at the end was originally gonna be the girl that was forced to testify against akira which results in his probation but i couldnt find a way to smoothly fit it in. know thats that. be more sad. sorry)
> 
> thanks for reading! i appreciate u!!! have a good day/night!


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